Do you work in trading or in M&A and capital markets? Do you earn less than £600k ($976k)? You are below average.

New banking pay data, provided by salary-checking website Emolument and published in the Financial Times suggests that the average M&A banker/capital markets professional/trader working in the City of London today is earning £600k in combined base pay and bonus. £600k! Nearly $1m! This sounds unusually generous, particularly in light of banks' attempts to rebuild their 'pyramids' by adding junior staff whilst shedding senior ones. However, the standard London-based financial services professional on £600k may be less well off than he/she used to be. - In 2012 and 2013, Emolument thinks the average trader in London was earning £100k more. But traders' pay has fallen and the FT notes that a new spirit of egalitarianism has struck the banking industry. Traders are no longer the top earners. In 2014, traders and bankers are paid the same.

Separately, Bloomberg points out that Michele Foresti, the ex-Deutsche bank fixed income currencies and commodities (FICC) professional who was supposed to have leapt into action at Bank of America long ago is having his dynamism dampened by the Financial Conduct Authority. Two months after Foresti turned up at BofA, the British regulator still hasn't judged that he's 'fit and proper' to do the job.

Meanwhile:

Somehow or other, Barclays' new chairman John MacFarlane will need to advise management on how a bank that ekes out a miserly overall 7.5 per cent return on tangible equity can cover its cost of equity anytime soon. (Financial Times)

JPMorgan won't be having a new £1.5bn headquarters at Canary Wharf after all. It wants to sell the building on. (Sunday Times)

IPO's in London this year are expected to be at their highest level since 1998. (Financial Times)